Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Friday they're eyeing a fall 2027 start date for construction of a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast. It's part of a plan to accomplish the remaining steps of the landmark energy deal they signed last fall. There is to be a new scheme for carbon emissions pricing in...
Mark Carney says Canada can become an energy superpower, given its potential in oil, gas, electricity, solar, and wind. But as we are seeing now, to get there, some old promises need to change. Is that price too high? Is the Liberal Party's unity at stake? Just some of the questions and one of the issues for Chantal and Bruce...
Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith is asking supporters for advice on what his next steps should be, with his potential bid to become Ontario Liberal leader in doubt following a nomination loss. Erskine-Smith was vying to represent the provincial party in the upcoming Scarborough Southwest byelection but lost a nomination race last weekend. He had said he wanted to run in...
Virtual private network service NordVPN says it could pull out of Canada over the federal government's proposed lawful access bill. NordVPN says it is reviewing the bill and would consider leaving Canada if the bill requires it to compromise its privacy protections. Earlier this week, The Globe and Mail reported that the encrypted messaging service Signal said it would leave...
Since gas prices started climbing in March, Sarah Bradley has found herself bargain hunting across multiple grocery stores in Montreal. "Before, I'm a one-stop shop person," she said. "Now I think twice. I'm like, OK, do I need that from IGA or can I find it somewhere else for cheaper? "It's insane," she said of the cost of filling up...
The Ontario Progressive Conservatives continue to lead in provincial voting intentions, while the Ontario Liberals sit within striking distance, according to a new Leger survey of Ontarians.
A new Liaison Strategies survey shows Mayor Olivia Chow holding a 13-point lead over Councillor Brad Bradford among decided voters, while Torontonians express overwhelming frustration with traffic congestion and road construction coordination. If a mayoral election were held today among decided voters, Olivia Chow would receive 50% support, followed by Brad Bradford at 37% and another candidate at 13%. Among...
Alberta and Ottawa just did something nobody expected, and it actually matters. For years, the story of Canadian climate policy has been a familiar one: Ottawa sets ambitious targets, Alberta pushes back, and the country lurches forward with neither the unity nor the urgency the moment demands. Today, that story finally has a new chapter.
Good news from the West: the prospect of a referendum on independence for Alberta this fall continues to collapse under the weight of its own absurdities and contradictions.
The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says proposed changes to major project development rules "are not acceptable" and risk trampling on the rights of First Nations. The federal government is proposing giving authority to review interprovincial pipelines and transmission lines, and offshore renewable energy projects, to the Canada Energy Regulator instead of the Impact Assessment Agency of...
Scores of former senior Canadian diplomats are calling for Prime Minister Mark Carney to issue "robust" sanctions on Israel over deteriorating conditions in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon. In a letter sent to media outlets, the former diplomats also call on the federal government to review Canada's trade agreement with Israel and issue a notice that a strategic partnership agreement...
Is Canada on track to meet its climate goals? The honest answer is “no,” and the really honest answer is that Canada’s climate goals will never be reached. They are folly and were designed by climate idealogues who had no concept of consequence, economic reality, or un...
Two questions burn at the top of Canada’s economic agenda: how to accelerate growth, and how to mobilize the capital to fund it. Increasingly, the answer to both hinges on something we have long taken for granted: electricity. More and more, Canada’s economic agenda is pinned to projects that require abundant, cheap and low-carbon electricity. Critical minerals mining and processing...
In January, Prime Minister Carney gave a speech in Davos that went viral with its stark honesty about a rupture in the world order. From the campaign trail to his first year in office, Carney has consistently described the challenges Canadians face as a hinge moment for the country, a turning point requiring dramatic change. And that was before the...
The recorded history of Canada stretches back more than 500 years; the unrecorded history, many thousands. It is one of the world’s oldest continuously existing democracies, with a Constitution whose principal features – monarchical, federal, parliamentary, with an independent judiciary and (ahem) an unelected Senate – have remained unchanged since 1867.
For the last torrid year in Alberta politics, so much seemed to be building toward a separation referendum this fall. Premier Danielle Smith eased the rules repeatedly for a pro-separatist petition to succeed. Right before a court first ruled against petitioners in December because of constitutional issues, her government rewrote a law to make that moot. She scheduled a series...
In the United States, the life expectancy is 78.4 years. In Canada, it’s 82.2. That would be a good statistic to insert into a response to America’s Canada-trashers, like Ambassador Pete Hoekstra or Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. A line like: “Dear Americans, if you want to live several years longer, move to Canada.” It’s a telling statistic. In the debate...
Civil liberties groups, legal experts and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce have been sounding the alarm for months on the privacy and cybersecurity issues contained in the Carney government’s Lawful Access Act, or Bill C-22. In a not-so-surprising twist, American lawmakers have now also added their voice to those warning about the bill.
Various experts have been assuring the public over the past several weeks that the risk of a major hantavirus outbreak is low. This is a known virus, they say, unlike the novel coronavirus first observed in 2019. It doesn’t pose pandemic potential, they say, because this Andes variant requires prolonged close contact to be transmitted from human to human.
A sense of inevitability has set into the public mood in Alberta, as it seems that a referendum on independence is going to happen this fall, in spite of a cascading series of dubious events. It shouldn’t be this way—no separatist party won an election on a clear mandate for a referendum, so there is no democratic legitimacy for one...
Americans are impatient with their chaotic President. For a shockingly long time, they seemed willing to shrug off his juvenile framing of complex issues. Some winced, many looked away. Millions marched, and the rest of the world wondered why it wasn’t millions more. Trump will never stop being Trump. But he’s got fewer cards. He’s spending billions on a war...
Perhaps the most attention-grabbing criticism of the Carney government's proposed changes to environmental regulations and permitting has come not from across the aisle, but from within the Liberal caucus — and is being framed as a comparison with the last Conservative prime minister. "This goes beyond what [Stephen] Harper proposed when he was in power," Steven Guilbeault, the former environment...
The controversy over Louise Arbour’s appointment as Governor-General is unusual in that both sides cite the same set of facts. She’s a former Supreme Court justice, say her supporters, a former international war-crimes prosecutor, and a former UN high commissioner for human rights, among a long list of other offices and laurels. Exactly, say her opponents: a bona fide member...
As Mark Carney often reminds us, he is not, as he puts it, “a career politician.” In many ways, that is a good thing. After two decades of rancorous, often toxic uber-partisanship, Carney’s no-nonsense, low-key approach is a welcome relief and reassuring to Canadians who have been deeply unnerved by Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks on our country.
On the recent anniversary of the April 2025 election that confirmed Mark Carney and the Liberals as Canada’s government, there were many analyses offered on what the year had achieved and what the next one might hold. But few people took a closer look at what the first year of Carney’s tenure has meant to the Official Opposition, the Conservative...
The political ground in Alberta could shift radically in the next few days. Premier Danielle Smith will finally have a weapon to slap down separatism. The separatist leaders, meanwhile, are also doing an excellent job of slapping down separatism. A pipeline and economic deal with Ottawa is widely expected.
Commenting on the trucker convoys that took place in 2022 in Ottawa and Coutts, Alta., prominent security analyst Wesley Wark said, “I think the history of the Freedom Convoy has really not settled into the Canadian consciousness.” “It may be some time before we really figure out for ourselves what was involved here, what was at stake,” Wark, a senior...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is avidly wooing the west — but will his own caucus trip him up? Last Friday, Carney met with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to reassure her that Ottawa’s got her back on a second bitumen pipeline from Alberta to Canada’s West Coast. After the tête-à-tête Smith said, “This morning I said ‘if’ a deal gets signed...
A deal between Premier Smith and Prime Minister Carney. Very soon. Book your seat
On Friday evening, just before he had hoped to secure the Liberal nomination for a provincial byelection in Scarborough Southwest, Nate Erskine-Smith posted a video to his social media feeds that did not leave a lot of room for interpretation of his future plans. It was an endorsement, of sorts, from Prime Minister Mark Carney. Erskine-Smith, the MP for the...
There is only one way Alberta leaders’ contempt for Canada makes any sense. They don’t think they need Canada because, as David Parker says, 'we have America backing us'
If you haven’t seen Richard Warnica’s reports over the weekend in the Star on the leadership of the Alberta separatist movement, do yourself a favour: read them. Warnica spent time among people pushing the cause of Alberta independence and specifically with Mitch Sylvestre, the man he describes as the “architect” of the movement.
Building at speeds not seen in generations, as per Mark Carney’s oft-repeated election pledge, has been less hypersonic than the prime minister might have wished. As the new parliamentary budget officer pointed out last week in an analysis of the spring fiscal update, only two of 15 projects being overseen by Carney’s Major Projects Office are actually under construction, and...
It’s been a rollicking week in the nerdy world of data collection in Canada — the massive privacy breach of Alberta voter information, the disturbing revelations about how AI chatbots are mining personal details, and now on the heels of all that, national census day. Tuesday is the deadline for all Canadians to complete either a long-form or short-form census...
Something odd is happening in Canada’s national politics. Governing is usually a recipe for a short honeymoon followed eventually by a bitter divorce. Today’s man on the top of the wedding cake has a way of becoming tomorrow’s villain.
OTTAWA -- The Supreme Court of Canada has recognized intimate partner violence as a distinct legal basis for pursuing civil damages.
Alberta’s chief electoral officer Gordon McClure says he accepts a court’s ruling overturning his decision to authorize an Albertan to gather signatures for a proposed independence referendum. Boxes containing sheets with potentially hundreds of thousands of signatures supporting a separation referendum remain locked in a secure Elections Alberta facility, and employees will not count or verify those signatures for now...
Former Liberal environment minister Stéphane Dion says Ottawa’s recent proposal to streamline major project reviews—which some environmentalists say could result in “the most consequential change to the fabric of Canadian environmental law in a generation”—is the latest in a trend of “backlash against climate policies.” “There is the sense that we went too far,” said Dion in an interview with...
Defence Minister David McGuinty declined to say whether Canada would continue sending warships through the Taiwan Strait, weeks after China’s ambassador warned doing so would damage a new strategic partnership Prime Minister Mark Carney has struck with Beijing. Mr. McGuinty cited operational security as a reason for not answering. “Those are operational questions, security questions – I don’t get into...
As Canada enters free trade talks with U.S., these charts show Canada’s impact on booze trade. As we head into the Victoria Day long weekend, one of the busiest booze-buying weekends on the calendar, it's the second year where most Canadians are without access to American labels. When Canadian liquor stores pulled American products from shelves in early 2025, it...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are to meet today in Calgary, where they're expected to announce an agreement on the future of industrial carbon emission pricing in the province. A source with knowledge of the discussions has said the leaders are expected to reveal a plan for Alberta to raise its emission price to $130 per...
Bill C-22 proposes to help police investigate online cases. A Liberal government bill that proposes giving police and spies easier access to information during investigations has fallen into the crosshairs of U.S. tech giants and two American congressional committees, threatening to become the latest irritant in the Canada-U.S. relationship. The bill, this government’s second attempt at passing lawful access legislation...
Internal review found the activity violated intelligence-gathering rules. The military reprimanded soldiers after they raised concerns about an order to monitor Canadians' online activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, CBC News has learned. But the military’s top lawyer later warned of risks associated with this kind of monitoring, and a review found it violated the rules, according to internal documents viewed...
Defence Minister David McGuinty said Canada could contribute a vessel, demining assistance or satellite imagery if a mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz proceeds. Mr. McGuinty, who wrapped up a defence and trade visit to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar on Thursday, said a condition of this support would be “a durable cessation” of hostilities in the vital...
Conservatives are questioning why CBC is funding a spoof program that used false pretences to lure high-profile people accused of downplaying the damage caused by residential schools into sitting for interviews. Several current and former Conservative politicians have gone on social media to denounce the production "Northland Tales." The show is being produced for CBC and APTN. The show is...
The Carney government is putting a new emphasis on diplomacy with Persian Gulf countries -- one that goes beyond seeking investments in Canada to arrangements touching on defence and artificial intelligence. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand made trips to both Oman and Qatar this week, while Defence Minister David McGuinty was in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Prime Minister...
U.S. pointing to agricultural tax exemptions as justification for countervailing duties. The U.S. is about to slap countervailing duties on fresh mushrooms grown in Canada, as Canadian growers warn of broader risks to the farming sector on both sides of the border. A U.S. Commerce Department fact sheet released this week and shared with CBC by the Canadian Mushroom Growers'...
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his government’s plan to double the capacity of Canada’s electricity grid by 2050, in part by potentially rolling back Trudeau-era regulations for clean electricity in a move that environment experts call “a huge betrayal.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith say they'll be in Calgary on Friday to announce the next step in their landmark energy pact. Carney says it will feature an implementation agreement on industrial carbon pricing and advance a potential new pipeline. Neither he nor Smith shared more details, but the premier told the legislative assembly it would...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday his government is open to selling public assets if the proceeds could help fund new infrastructure. The November federal budget and April spring economic statement both mentioned exploring new ownership options for the country's federally owned airports. As first reported by the Toronto Star, a transport ministry discussion paper published last week on...
The best place for Alberta to be is in Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday after a judge's decision to throw out a separatist petition in the province. "Certainly a Canada that works, which is what we're pursuing," Carney told reporters. "I think the evidence — well — others will judge."
Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled Canada's long-awaited new electricity strategy Thursday, placing a heavy emphasis on expanding the role of natural gas in powering the grid as he seemed to distance the government from its 2030 Paris climate commitments. The new strategy looks to double Canada's electricity grid by 2050 and would adjust the clean electricity regulations to provide more...
The federal government’s proposal to legally allow projects to go ahead even if they result in an entire species going extinct is directed at projects, such as ports and pipelines, that jeopardize the existence of the endangered southern resident killer whale population, several sources told the Star Wednesday.
Secure messaging service Signal, which uses end-to-end encryption, is warning it would withdraw from Canada if asked to compromise its users’ privacy under Bill C-22, Ottawa’s proposed lawful access legislation. In an interview, Udbhav Tiwari, Signal vice-president of strategy and global affairs, said the company has deep concerns about measures in the bill, including its potential to introduce security vulnerabilities...
China's Xi Jinping warned President Donald Trump on Thursday that the two countries could clash over Taiwan if the issue was not handled properly, an unusually harsh admonition that stood in contrast to the American leader's praise for his counterpart. The exchange at a highly anticipated summit in Beijing underscored just how far apart Trump and Xi remain on thorny...
About half of Ontarians say their impression of Premier Doug Ford has worsened in recent months and 56 per cent believe the province is headed in the wrong direction, according to a new Postmedia-Leger survey. Barely over a third (36 per cent) of Ontarians surveyed believe the province is headed in the right direction.
Honda is “indefinitely” suspending plans for a $15-billion electric vehicle project in Ontario as part of a larger overhaul of the automaker’s business model. Honda Global CEO Toshihiro Mibe held a press briefing in Tokyo on Thursday, saying the company will focus on rebuilding its automobile business structure over the next three years and reallocate more resources to hybrid models...
The Liberal government is pushing ahead with a social media ban for youth, The Logic has learned. The same legislation is likely to include age restrictions for chatbots.
Both South Korea and Germany are making final pitches for a lucrative contract to build 12 submarines for Canada, with Berlin dispatching its defence minister for another visit to Ottawa and the Koreans sailing their offered vessel 14,000 kilometres for a ship visit to Victoria. Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he expects to make a decision by the end...
A new online survey suggests nearly a quarter of Canadians say they've declined to get a vaccine recommended by their doctor -- and the data indicates most of them did so because they were concerned about potential side effects. A report from Proof Strategies released Thursday -- which is World Vaccine Day -- explores how Canadians feel about vaccines and...
The federal government is pushing to get Canadian companies on major Chinese e-commerce platforms as the two countries deepen their ties. International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu told The Canadian Press in a recent interview that China's e-commerce titans Alibaba and JD.com want more Canadian businesses on their platforms. "I want to help enable that," he said. "There are some options...
Visits by Canadians have cratered by 42% over the last year, cell phone data reveals. The boycott by Canadians of travel to the U.S., driven largely by an aversion to President Donald Trump, his industry-wrecking tariffs and 51st state taunts, has actually been more effective than previously thought, according to new data. While official Statistics Canada figures show a roughly...
President Donald Trump began his trip to Beijing on Thursday by telling Xi Jinping "it's an honor to be your friend," even as his Chinese counterpart offered a cautionary warning about avoiding a possible clash between the two nations. The stark contrast in tone underscored just how far apart the leaders remain on thorny issues including the war in Iran...
Premier Danielle Smith is rejecting the ruling of an Alberta judge who on Wednesday quashed a separatist petition and says the province will appeal the court ruling. In her written judgment, Justice Shaina Leonard ruled the petition should never have been issued because the provincial government failed in its duty to consult with First Nations and Alberta’s separation would be...
This week's announcement is expected to feature key dates surrounding Alberta's pipeline proposal. Alberta and the federal government are looking at a fall date for when Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet will designate a pipeline to the West Coast as being in the national interest, National Post has learned. Building a new one-million barrel-a-day pipeline from Alberta to the West...
MIAMI (AP) -- The Justice Department is preparing to seek an indictment against former Cuban President Raul Castro, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Friday, as President Donald Trump threatens possible military action against the communist-run island.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell is considered such a titan in his home state that Kentucky lawmakers voted to put a statue of him alongside Abraham Lincoln in the Capitol. After overcoming polio as a child, McConnell rose to become the longest-serving Senate leader in history and helped secure a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court...
ATLANTA (AP) -- Same fight. New generation.
China's Xi Jinping warned President Donald Trump on Thursday that the two countries could clash over Taiwan if the issue was not handled properly, an unusually harsh admonition that stood in contrast to the American leader's praise for his counterpart. The exchange at a highly anticipated summit in Beijing underscored just how far apart Trump and Xi remain on thorny...
Scores of former senior Canadian diplomats are calling for Prime Minister Mark Carney to issue "robust" sanctions on Israel over deteriorating conditions in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon. In a letter sent to media outlets, the former diplomats also call on the federal government to review Canada's trade agreement with Israel and issue a notice that a strategic partnership agreement...
Defence Minister David McGuinty declined to say whether Canada would continue sending warships through the Taiwan Strait, weeks after China’s ambassador warned doing so would damage a new strategic partnership Prime Minister Mark Carney has struck with Beijing. Mr. McGuinty cited operational security as a reason for not answering. “Those are operational questions, security questions – I don’t get into...
The Carney government is putting a new emphasis on diplomacy with Persian Gulf countries -- one that goes beyond seeking investments in Canada to arrangements touching on defence and artificial intelligence. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand made trips to both Oman and Qatar this week, while Defence Minister David McGuinty was in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Prime Minister...
China's Xi Jinping warned President Donald Trump on Thursday that the two countries could clash over Taiwan if the issue was not handled properly, an unusually harsh admonition that stood in contrast to the American leader's praise for his counterpart. The exchange at a highly anticipated summit in Beijing underscored just how far apart Trump and Xi remain on thorny...
President Donald Trump began his trip to Beijing on Thursday by telling Xi Jinping "it's an honor to be your friend," even as his Chinese counterpart offered a cautionary warning about avoiding a possible clash between the two nations. The stark contrast in tone underscored just how far apart the leaders remain on thorny issues including the war in Iran...
Coal is often treated as a relic of the past – dirty, declining, and politically toxic. Yet globally, it remains indispensable, the backbone of electricity systems in Asia and the primary input for global steelmaking.
When the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force in 1982, many warned that it would undermine the foundations of Canada’s system of parliamentary democracy and usher in a new age of judicial supremacy. For a time, those concerns appeared overstated. Canadian courts exercised a degree of restraint, and the basic contours of Westminster parliamentary governance remained intact...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Canada’s privacy laws are supposed to protect ordinary citizens from unwarranted intrusions into their personal lives. But they can also protect pedophiles. Dead pedophiles. Dead pedophiles from America.
If you want to sound wise these days, just blame the crazy state of the world on polarization. If you want to sound really wise, say that fighting polarization needs to be part of the political agenda and be sure to blame social media and Donald Trump (although not necessarily in that order) for the current chaos. Despite it being...
An F-35 crash in Alaska should give shivers to Canada’s military. The pilot survived thankfully, but the $200 million plane was completely destroyed.
At Issue this week: Prime Minister Mark Carney juggles fighting climate change while pushing energy development — but is caucus with him? Plus, Danielle Smith's government vows to fight a court decision to throw out a petition for an Alberta separation referendum.
The ceasefire in Iran has been in place for five weeks, with no clear end in sight to the war. The latest peace negotiations fell apart, with U.S. President Trump saying that the ceasefire is on “life support.” So what happens now? What kind of pain will Iran be able to tolerate? And how can the U.S. get itself out...
This week’s court ruling on the Alberta separation petition has only raised more questions about whether the province will be holding a referendum on independence this fall. Whatever next steps Premier Danielle Smith takes will come with a great degree of risk — for her party, for the province and for Canada.
In our first edition of a monthly segment, Steve is joined by “the most difficult man to introduce in Canada,” Bob Rae, to discuss how we are increasingly seeing behaviour in the world that is “tyrannical,” the fallout from the Iran War, why it has achieved nothing, why Canada must be more than just a bystander, and why Blaise Pascal’s...
